Properties of starch across different genera.
Abstract
Starch occurs in form of granules and constitutes a primary manner in which of carbohydrates are stored chiefly in seeds and underground organs and sparingly in other morphological parts such as leaf and bark parts of plants. Grains of transitional starch can be found in the stroma of chloroplast and cytoplasm in leaf parts when exposed to the sun and transferred to organs for storage at dark times. The shape and size, ratio of amylose and amylopectin content of starch grains are peculiar to different biological sources. A literature survey was carried out using various search engines. Journals were searched for using keywords such as microscopy, amylopectin, starch granules etc. The relative qualitative and quantitative properties of starches from various morphological parts of 35 species from 15 families were studied. The qualitative features of shape and size as observed from microscopy were not specific or peculiar to each genus and family as similar shapes and sizes cut across different species. Amylopectin and amylose contents varied considerably among all the species and can be used as one of the means of identification for medicinal plants and the delineation of plant species along with other genetic and physicochemical properties.
Keywords
- starch
- botanical source
- morphology
- microscopy
- amylose
- amylopectin
1. Introduction
1.1 Starch and formation of starch granules
Starch, a polymer of glucose which is a metabolite from photosynthesis constitutes a major stored form of carbohydrate found in seeds, roots, rhizomes and tubers. Amylopectin (α-amylose) and amylose (β-amylose) constitute over 80% of many starches. Amylopectin (α-amylose) has a branched structure while β-amylose consists of linear chains. β-amylose has a helical arrangement comprising of six glucosyl units and a diameter of 1.3 mm. The differences in the structure and proportion or amounts of amylopectin and amylose give starch grains different properties and add immensely to the distinctive properties of starch from various sources [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
The ubiquitous nature of starch granules to makes the presence or absence it a less important parameter in the identifying and classifying or re-classifying species however, each starch granule has some properties that are peculiar enough to a species and can thus be used to identify such specie. Research toward identify marker patterns in morphology and physicochemical properties are ongoing to identify morphotypes that could possibly be of use taxonomically.
2. Botanical sources of starch
Starch is essentially sourced from plants with many species having from 2 to 12% starch content. The tuberic part houses most of the starch being a storage organ as in the tuber of
Plant Part | Starch granules (μm) | Content (%w/w) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Granular shape | Granular size | Amylose | Amylopectin | |
FAMILY: |
||||||
Zingiber | Rhizome | Oval to elliptical | 4–50 | 22.2 | 77 | |
Rhizomes | Round to oval | 5–20 | 22.9 | 78 | ||
Curcuma | Rhizomes | Oval, flat and triangular | 20–30 | 22 | 77 | |
Rhizomes | Oval to elliptical | 10–30 | 23.5 | 75–77 | ||
Rhizomes | Round to Oval | 8–30 | 27.7 | 71–74 | ||
FAMILY: |
||||||
Root tuber | Oval, round, polyhedral | 18.5–45 | 29–30 [19] | 69–72 | ||
Root tuber | Ovoid, oblong, round | 21–39 | 23–24 [19] | 66–68 [19] | ||
Root tuber | Triangular | 33–49 | 16–19 [19] | 83–85 [19] | ||
Root tuber | Polygonal | 7 | 15–25 [19] | 75–85 [19] | ||
Root tuber | Polygonal | 1–5 | 14.1–17.1 | 82–86 | ||
FAMILY: |
||||||
Ipomoea | Root tuber | Polygonal | 1–100 | 28–30% | 68–70% | |
FAMILY: |
||||||
Manihot | Root tuber | Round with a truncated end | 5–35 | 29.5 | 70 | |
Root tuber | Polygonal | 3–28 | 26.2 | 73 | ||
Root tuber | Round | 5–13 | 22 | 78 | ||
FAMILY: |
||||||
Hordeum | Seed kernel | Round, oval | 9–32 | 22–27 | 78–73 | |
Seed kernel | Polygonal | 10–26 | 24–28 | 76–72 | ||
Seed kernel | Round to oval | 8–23 | 17–19 | 83–81 | ||
FAMILY: |
||||||
Musa | Fruit | Oblong shape | 10–50 | 37.8 [20] | 62.2 [20] | |
Fruit | Oval | 9–25 [20] | 24.85 [20] | 75.15 [20] | ||
Fruit | Elongated oval | 15–55 | 22.89 [20] | 77.11 [20] | ||
FAMILY: |
||||||
Fritillaria | Bulb | Round [21] | 5–30 | 26.4 [21] | 73.6 [21] | |
Bulb | Round to elliptical | 5–30 | 26.3 [21] | 73.7 [21] | ||
Bulb | Irregular [21] | 5–40 | 29.8 | 70.2 [21] | ||
Bulb | Irregular/polygonal | 5–25 | 21.7 | 78.3 [21] | ||
Bulb | Oval | 5–45 | 30.2 | 69.8 [21] | ||
FAMILY: |
||||||
Typha | rhizomes | Special /lenticular shape7 | 9 [22] | 31.69 [22] | 68.31 [22] | |
FAMILY: |
||||||
Vigna | Seed | Oval to spherical [23] | 7.91–15.5 | 39.09–42.78 [23] | 58–62 [23] | |
Seed | Oval, round and elongated | 7.50–13.2 | 32.8 [23] | 67 [23] | ||
Seed | Oval, round to bean shaped | 7–26 | 45.3 [23] | 55 [23] | ||
Pisum | Seed | Oval or spherical | 2–40 | 33–48.8 [24] | 50–67 [24] | |
FAMILY: |
||||||
Nelumbo | Root | Oval, round, elongated [25] | 10.2–50.7 [25] | 18.75–20.84 [25] | 78–82 [25] | |
FAMILY: |
||||||
Colocasia | Root | Angular and elongated | 2 | 7.91% | 82 |
2.1 Microscopy of starches
Starch grains are either simple or compound and the number of components present in each compound granule is usually described as 2-, 3-, 4- or 5- etc. Compound granules such as in rice and cardamom are in many cases formed by simple granules clumping together. Granules are formed in from the amyloplast and marked by the hilum. The hilum might be eccentric, mostly longer than being broad, central, open or closed. When starch grains are dry, fissures as seen to begin from the hilum (Figure 1). Under a microscope, the position and various forms of the hilum can be described as a round dot, simple, curved, punctate, stellate or multiple cleft. Sizes of grains of starch have been observed to range from small (2–10 μm), medium (10–60 μm) and large (extending to 200 μm usually from rhizomes and tubers) however small to medium sized grains are most common [1, 2]. Starch grains come in a wide range of shapes e.g. Regular disc, oval, elongated, rounded, kidney/bean shaped, spherical (e.g. as starch grains from roots of
2.2 Properties of starch and the delineation of species
The qualitative and quantitative morphological, chemical and genetic properties are peculiar to the source of the starch some of these characteristics include size, shape, surface characteristics, gene expression, reaction with iodine, X-ray diffraction pattern and gelatinization.
2.2.1 Morphological and micrometric properties of starch granules
These properties as described earlier from the qualitative and quantitative microscopic shape and size of starch grains. Studies carried out from four (4)
The physiology of the chloroplast and amyloplast of a plant greatly influences the morphology of starch granules thus causing the size and shape of a granule vary considerably with the morphological source of starch e.g. from root or tuber or endosperm of seed or from stem bark; geographical distribution or differences in climatic conditions wherein the plant was grown [7, 8, 9]. An extensive study centered on the classification of 23,100 granules and morphological features from 22 orders and 31 families drew out marker morphometric properties based on size, psilate texture, faceting and other quantitative microscopic properties, that could possibly identify species within each family. Examples of such morphotypes are Conoid—cuneiforms or Obiculars, Pear Shaped—irregulars, Parabolic—Prism, Prism and Lobate Shell, Prismatic—Polygonal, Globular—Orbicular, Globular Trapeziform, Hemisphere—Orbicular, etc. Granules from various species from families such as Zamiaceae, Araceae, Nymphaeaceae, Taccaceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae, Dioscoreacea, Iridaceae, Fabaceae, Sapotaceae, Apocynaceae, Arecaceae among others were screened. Major observations were the absence direct morphometric markers within 14 of the 31 screened families. The study concluded that morphological parameters were not concrete enough to establish taxonomic identification [4]. Properties of starch grains such as size, structure and shape extracted from various plant sources differ only to a certain extent, such that starches from some different biological sources can be identified. However, the range of shapes and sizes of starch grains are often wide and cut across different granules from even the same source (Figure 1 and Table 1). The variability is often as a result of differences in conditions such as climatic and/or geographic conditions, thus, features are not unique enough across all species in a family or genus. The degradative nature of starch within the tissues and storage organs at the point of seed germination, rhizome or tuber maturation, ripening of fruit or starch breakdown due to exposure to heat or chemical agents which causes it to loose textural, volumetric, and their morphometric properties, is another major factor that deters the use of micrometric parameters to classify species.
2.2.2 Physicochemical properties of starch granules
Starch grains vary in physicochemical properties. The variation in proportion of amylopectin and β-amylose present in starch granules contributes toward the slightly distinctive physical and chemical characters of starches from various biological sources. These characters often vary from species to species. In some species the amylose content increases as the granule develops or within different stages of granule formation for example the larger barley grains have higher amylose content than the smaller grains [3, 10, 11]. Pasting properties, reactions to stains, Thermal properties such as gelatinization temperatures and time and retrogradation differ between types of starch based on the amylopectin and amylose content. Increased amounts of amylose in starch, tends to raise gelatinization temperature of the starch [12, 13]. The length and degree of branching of amylopectin, lipid and amylose content of the starch grossly affects pasting properties. The swelling and pasting properties of starch are enhanced by greater amylopectin content while swelling is inhibited by a higher lipid and amylose content [14]. The viscosity of pastes from starch is also determined by the chain length of amylopectin and molecular size of amylose [15]. There are complex interactions that result in the pasting properties of starches due to the differences in structural features. An increase in pasting temperature, resistance to shear thinning of starch pastes from sources such as
2.2.3 X-ray diffraction pattern
Native starches show three main patterns of diffraction when exposed to X-rays called type A, type B and type C, which are caused by differences in the crystalline regions of the amylopectin molecules [17] and which relate to botanical differences [3]. In general, cereal starches usually give the A-type diffraction, while tuber starches generally show the B-type pattern (although some tropical tubers have A-type starches) and some root and seed starches give the C patterns [18]. According to a study [6] on different starches also from Dioscorea species,
3. Conclusions
It is pertinent to involve data from morphological, physicochemical, chemical and genetic features of starch granules to classify and delinate species to avoid discrepancies. In the identification of some species, some morphometric features are specific enough and marker worthy to identify these species however this will be specie specific and might not cut across the genus or family of the botanical source. The qualitative and quantitative morphological and physicochemical properties can be harnessed in the selection of starches from different botanical sources for different uses.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Mr. Agbaje Wale and Miss Esievo Benefit who served as a resource and a source of encouragement.
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